a pleasant, low-key weekend

[winterbadger]

What with the Verizon guy coming yesterday and me generally feeling lazy, I didn't do much with yesterday.

Today's been a bit better. I went cycling (hence the picture of Rupert); only ~4-5 miles, but it seems I'm still very out of shape. :-( I've gotten groceries, got new mats for the cat boxes, gone to the bank (thank you, Capital Coed Soccer League!), done laundry, made dinner. Some tea and a little more telly while the last of the laundry dries, then to bed...

I watched another movie, The Secret of Roan Inish, written and directed by John Sayles, a Williams alum. Lovely story about people, the sea, islands, seals, and a little magic. No dragons, no fighter jets, no sex (only a very little romance, even, in passing), no explosions; but if you have the sea and waves crashing on the shore, and the lilt of Irish voices, and a little wonder, do you really need any of the rest?

Comments

[winterbadger]

To be frank, those *are* pretty minor things to damn a whole film by.

For one thing, the movie is adapted from a popular childrens' book called 'The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry' [? Big Seal Skerry?]. I don't know why the director chose to change the name of the island (he said in an interview that he changed the setting from Scotland to Ireland because he was more familiar with Ireland and with Irish literature), but there were Gaelic speakers helping the cast with their lines, and I'm sure if it was that awful a mistake they will have pointed it out to him. Maybe the marketing materials were already done, maybe they were uncomfortable breaking the connection with the book, maybe no one wanted to go through and change every reference in the script.

As for the little girl, all I remember is the shopkeeper saying "She's not one of the dark ones, then, is she?" to her grandmother, not so much a question as a way of phrasing an observation, which leads to her meeting her cousin Tadhg, who *is* one of the dark ones (and clearly so).

I'm all for getting things right (I had a huge argument once with a GF who thought that 'Elizabeth' was wonderful, because she (the GF) was a costumer and didn't care that the filmmaker had totally changed the history). But I'm sometimes surprised at how small a thing will make some people give up on a rewarding experience. gr_c17 won't read any CS Forester novels because Forester made a small error in 19th century firearms terminology in one book. You've never seen more than half of a really wonderful film because of a slip in word order. That seems to me an awful pity--it's such a wonderful film!

Incidentally, there seem to be several Seal Islands off the coast of Scotland. One has its own story, on the web!

http://www.scottishweb.net/articles/40/1/The-Story-Of-Island-Roan/Page1.html

[gr-c17.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, I've been thinking of returning to Mr. Foresters work, as I'm contemplating dipping my toe into Naval Wargamming in that period.

On the other hand the "Zulu" soundtrack in "Gladiator" just gave me a laugh and I managed to enjoy the rest of the movie.

And in the issue of fairness, or just to troll... "300" ;)

[winterbadger]

And in the issue of fairness, or just to troll... "300" ;)

Absolutely fair, and I knew that was coming! :-) As I said re: 'Elizabeth' and Liz, I'm hardly sinless in this regard.

OTOH, the massed Highland bagpipers that greet Queen Mary on her return to Edinburgh in the 1971 Mary Queen of Scots only cause me to laugh hysterically. :-)

Truthfully, I've been thinking of returning to Mr. Foresters work, as I'm contemplating dipping my toe into Naval Wargamming in that period.

Forester really is awfully good; give him another shot. Patrick O'Brian is good, though he does spend a lot of time on onshore events and personalities; don't know whether that would be to your taste or not. 'Alexander Kent' (real name Douglas Reeman) is good too and his novels start with (actually before) the American Revolution. C. N. Parkinson is good (his novels also feature the Revolution). Dudley Pope and Dewey Lambdin are OK, IIRC, but not stellar. Others that Wikipedia lists who I don't know include Richard Woodman, David Donachie, James L. Nelson, Ellis K. Meecham, Victor Suthren, Edwin Thomas, Julian Stockwin, Richard Woodman, and some classic authors, like Emlio Salgari and Frederick Marrayat.

What did you think of Flying Colors? Would you like to play that again, or did it not... float your boat?

[gr-c17.livejournal.com]

I'd like another crack or two at "Flying Colors" but I think I do like it.

( "float your boat" groan )